IU Opera and Ballet Theater Announces Their 2010-2011 Season

Two world premieres, a number of new productions and some old favorites will be on exhibit at Bloomington's Musical Arts Center during Indiana University Opera and Ballet Theater's 2010-2011 season.

"While it is always exciting to announce the new season, it is particularly so this year," said Jacobs School of Music Dean Gwyn Richards. "In addition to two new opera productions and one ballet premiere, IU Opera Theater has announced the world premiere of Vincent, based on the life of painter Vincent Van Gogh. We are thrilled to be collaborating with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Bernard Rands for this project, as well as one of the most sought-after librettists, J. D. McClatchy."

Vincent is the first of a number of commissions and projects that celebrate the forming of the original IU music department in 1910 and the establishing of the IU School of Music in 1921.

Jacobs Professor Vincent Liotta will stage direct Vincent and Professor Arthur Fagen will conduct. Guest production designer Barry Steele will team with Assistant Professor of Costume Design Linda Pisano of the IU Department of Theatre and Drama.

Prior to the spring debut of Vincent, the season will kick off with a new production of Rossini's ever-popular IL Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). Guest Nicholas Muni, who last directed The Love for Three Oranges at IU, will assume stage director duties, while Fagen will conduct, and Professor C. David Higgins will design new sets and costumes.

Louisa May Alcott's poignant coming-of-age novel Little Women will then come to life in Mark Adamo's adaptation, led by returning guests Michael Ehrman, director, and Kevin Noe, conductor, with designs by retirEd Jacobs Professor Robert O'Hearn.

Johann Strauss's effervescent operetta Die Fledermaus (The Bat) will bring IU Opera Theater's fall semester to a close. Higgins' designs will be featured in this production, which will be guest-directed by Joachim Schamberger (in his IU Opera Theater directing debut) and conducted by guest Constantine Kitsopoulos, whose last assignment at IU Opera was The Most Happy Fella.

Spring semester will commence with Puccini's tragic-then-comedic double bill Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. Guest director James Marvel returns to join guest conductor Andrew Altenbach, a Jacobs alumnus with a promising conducting career. While Altenbach was still a student at IU in 2005, he conducted the IU Opera Theater production of Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte. Higgins will again take on set and costume design duties.

IU Opera's second new production of the season, Gounod's Faust, opens in late February. This "deal with the devil" will find guest Tomer Zvulun returning to the director's chair, following his success with last season's Die Zauberflöte, and Jacobs Professor and Conducting Department Chair David Effron on the podium, with Higgins at the designing table.

IU Ballet Theater, directed by Ballet Department Chair Michael Vernon, also will stage a world premiere next season.

The Baker Dances, choreographed by Joshua Bergasse (director of the current IU production of West Side Story) and set to music by Jacobs Distinguished Professor David N. Baker, will premiere as part of the Fall Ballet 2010's "A Choreographer's Evening."

Completing the program will be Noir, with choreography by Twyla Tharp and music by Béla Bartók; Allegro Brillante, with choreography by George Balanchine and music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky; and Glinka Pas de Trois, featuring Balanchine's choreography set to music by Mikhail Glinka.

IU's production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker returns in December, with choreography by Vernon, set and costume designs by Higgins and guest Jorge Carciofolo in the orchestra pit.

The spring ballet, "New York, New York!," will feature sophisticated staples of the "Big Apple's" ballet scene, conducted by guest Stewart Kershaw.

The work of choreographer Antony Tudor and composer Ernest Chausson will be showcased in Lilac Garden, a mainstay of New York City's American Ballet Theatre for years.

Choreography from New York dance giant Paul Taylor will take the stage in Cloven Kingdom, set to music by Corelli, Cowell and Miller combined by John Herbert McDowell.

Who Cares? will spotlight choreography and music by two New York icons -- Balanchine and George Gershwin, respectively -- against the backdrop of a New York City skyline, concluding the evening and the 2010-2011 IU Ballet Theater season.

For more information and subscription opportunities, visit http://music.indiana.edu/operaballet.

INDIANA UNIVERSITY OPERA AND BALLET THEATER 2010-2011 SEASON

OPERA

All performances begin at 8 p.m.

IL Barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini (New Production)

September 24, 25, October 1, 2

Conductor: Arthur Fagen

Stage Director: Nicholas Muni

Set and Costume Designer: C. David Higgins

Little Women by Mark Adamo

October 22, 23, 29, 30

Conductor: Kevin Noe

Stage Director: Michael Ehrman

Set and Costume Designer: Robert O'Hearn

Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss

November 12, 13, 19, 20

Conductor: Constantine Kitsopoulos

Stage Director: Joachim Schamberger

Set and Costume Designer: C. David Higgins

Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini

February 4, 5, 11, 12

Conductor: Andrew Altenbach

Stage Director: James Marvel

Set and Costume Designer: C. David Higgins

Faust by Charles Gounod (New Production)

February 25, 26 and March 4, 5

Conductor: David Effron

Stage Director: Tomer Zvulun

Set and Costume Designer: C. David Higgins

Vincent (World Premiere)

April 8, 9, 15, 16

Music by Bernard Rands

Libretto by J. D. McClatchy

Conductor: Arthur Fagen

Stage Director: Vincent Liotta

Production Designer: Barry Steele

Costume Designer: Linda Pisano

BALLET

A Choreographer's Evening: Fall Ballet

October 8, 9 at 8 p.m.

Noir - Music by Béla Bartók, Choreography by Twyla Tharp

Allegro Brillante - Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Choreography by George Balanchine

Glinka Pas de Trois - Music by Mikhail Glinka, Choreography by George Balanchine

The Baker Dances - Music by David N. Baker, Choreography by Joshua Bergasse (World Premiere)

The Nutcracker by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

December 3, 4 at 8 p.m.; December 4, 5 at 2 p.m.

Conductor: Jorge Carciofolo

Choreographer: Michael Vernon

Set and Costume Designer: C. David Higgins

New York, New York!: Spring Ballet

March 25 at 8 p.m., March 26 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Conductor: Stewart Kershaw

Lilac Garden - Choreography by Antony Tudor, Music by Ernest Chausson

Cloven Kingdom - Choreography by Paul Taylor, Music by Corelli, Cowell and Miller combined by John Herbert McDowell

Who Cares? - Choreography by George Balanchine, Music by George Gershwin

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